Prolongment by Grace Eyre

To fund their controversial Time research, B&E Labs patented a medical process called “Prolongment”, in which very old and very wealthy clients can pay to have their consciousness extended past death.

The process of Prolongment works by projecting the client’s consciousness (called a “replica mind”) into the future, past the point of death. When time is up, the replica mind is returned to the client, filling them with new memories. Postmortem memories. Memories of the future.

B&E Labs has many enemies. Now the city is now besieged with non-corporeal beings, more commonly known as ghosts. Some of these ghosts have a vengeance. B&E is under charges of corruption, and their services are seen as a threat to physical safety and the integrity of the space-time continuum.

Prolongment touches all inhabitants of the city, from a vigilante journalist to the victim of a haunting, from a wealthy client to a rogue scientist experimenting with her own mind. Above all, Prolongment weighs on the conscience of B&E’s CEO, Dr. Ken Muerta, whose moral code grows murkier as he struggles to hold the company together. The fate of the living, the dead, and Time itself is in his hands.

How is Writing In Your Genre Different from Others?
I’ll tell you the truth. I can’t think in genre. I always balk when someone asks me “what kind of music do you like?”, “what kind of books do you read?”, “what kind of films do you make?”. What do they mean “what kind”? The interesting kind. The good kind. It’s not any kind of moral high ground. I just don’t have a memory for catalog details. Genres have been helpful in some respect. I found some great authors like Ursula K. Le Guin after I realized that science fiction was one of my things. I’ve become more interested in science fact, as a result.

Prolongment was easier to sign and easier to market because it so happened that it could be called science fiction. But if you ask me what genre my last unpublished book was, I’d say “kind of contemporary fantasy, but not like the vampire stuff, kind of magical realism but not like Mexican or Spanish magical realism, a bit like a regular coming-of-age in a modern city but with a psychedelic otherworld attached.” If you ask me what kind of books I write, I’ll just tell you that I’m trying to write good ones. Genre doesn’t overly matter, is what I’m saying.

What Advice Would You Give Aspiring Writers?
Read. Read a ton. Write a ton, and when you feel yourself getting a bit stale, read some more. Find authors of any genre or period who have a style you admire. Write down words you don’t know. Have an expansive vocabulary. Think about the cadence of your language. Research weird things like marsupials or moss or clam bake festivals. Not necessarily for a book. Just enjoy your curiosity. It will show.

When it comes time to submit your work try not to (controversial I know) self-publish. You really need an editor. You really need a team. And unless you’re a social media aficionado with thousands of followers (I’m not), you also need a company or publication with a little clout behind it. Believe me, I know landing an agent is hard. So try literary journals. Try independent publishers. Try small press. Take the longer shots too, of course. Keep submitting to agents. Don’t ever be afraid of rejection. Rejection does not change your life one iota from what it was before, and therefore it can’t hurt you. If you get a rejection with feedback, listen to it. Otherwise, don’t give it another thought.

I have a giant multi-page spreadsheet with every publisher and agent ranked in order or how badly I want to work with them. I have contact details and notes on each one. I have it divided into short story, novel, and poetry submissions. I keep a folder for every place I’ve submitted to, so I know exactly what I’ve sent them. Keeping it this systemic makes it less personal and easier to move on. Most importantly, for my mental well-being, I always keep a ball in the air. When I’m in submission mode, I make sure I’m always waiting to hear back from someone. I stagger submissions so that I’ve got another hope floating around when I get rejected. It’s really helped me.

Author Bio:
Grace is a traveler, a vegetarian, a writer and a film editor who likes to work across a pantheon of genres and mediums. She currently lives in Sydney, Australia with her partner Ezra and her cat Coco.

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I was interested in the idea of phenomena like ghosts, which are normally considered paranormal and mysterious, existing in a world where they are completely explicable. In this case, the city is besieged with hauntings and often malevolent spirits, but everyone knows they’ve been created by the B&E corporation. I wonder, when ghosts are not supernatural, but the result of human enterprise, how does the relationship change? Would they still freak us out? I think so. But new issues are created. They must consider whether ghosts are human. They must consider whether ghosts have any responsibility for their behavior, or whether blame for their actions can really be applied to the memory their living selves. Are they even the same at all? What changes when you don’t have a body? That’s what inspires me.

There are also hard questions of time travel and (forget artificial intelligence) replicated intelligence. But you’ll have to read it to see where that goes!